Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Our National Geographic Explorer!

The hard life!

Well it was about bloody time!
One of our very own is a National Geographic Explorer!
From the interview with the great man.

The lemon shark has provided me with a career, a loving wife of 42 years, a family, a home, cars, travel, educated my children, and, yes, even today my grandchildren enjoy this wonderful great fish.

Have you guessed?
Yes that would be none other than Doc Gruber, Grand Mufti of Sharks, bon vivant extraordinaire, beloved by his friends and rightfully feared by his enemies!
Here's a nice video listing some of his academic credentials but above all, where he gives invaluable advice (!) to prospective Shark researchers, as in Study Hard!



We have now met a couple of times and I can attest to the fact that apart from knowing everything! that is currently known about Sharks (=heaps but actually, not much), the man is brilliantly intelligent, eminently entertaining and charming, and ludicrously witty - and absolutely and certifiably nuts to boot!

No I'm not alluding to stuff like this - that's just Work!

What I'm alluding to is what he does in his spare time - or does a septuagenarian hammering Porsches over race tracks and flying WW2 planes sound normal to you!


Anyway, I'm certainly digressing - as usual!
What I really wanted to say is that it's great to see his name among all those other illustrious personalities - which of course begs the question, does a veritable revered Nat Geo Explorer have the clout to influence that godawful Shark programming on Nat Geo Wild?
I wish!

Nat Geo interview here.

PS - and here's one more pic! :)

5 comments:

OfficetoOcean said...

One of the last great eccentric geniuses I can think of and a proper genuine legend. Richly deserved :)

The Sharkman said...

Congratulations Doc. No one deserves it more than you. And about time too.

Angelo Villagomez said...

Woot!

JSD said...

Bravo to Sonny - how many budding scientists first cut their teeth in Bimini?

DaShark said...

Good on you for mentioning that!

Doc's mentoring has produced a whole generation of fantastic Shark researchers who all pair brilliant academic credentials with passionate Shark conservation advocacy.

That, I believe, will be Doc's most lasting legacy and biggest contribution to the cause.